After months of drama over billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk’s hostile takeover, Twitter’s board has unanimously voted in favor of recommending that his bid be accepted.
“The Twitter Board, after considering various factors described in the section of this proxy statement captioned ‘The Merger— Recommendation of the Twitter Board and Reasons for the Merger,’ has unanimously: (1) determined that the merger agreement is advisable and the merger and the other transactions contemplated by the merger agreement are fair to, advisable and in the best interests of Twitter and its stockholders; and (2) adopted and approved the merger,” the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday.
The deal would take Twitter private at $54.20 per share and is expected to close in 2022. Musk still needs shareholder approval for the deal to go through.
Musk also needs to arrange his debt financing for the deal to be finalized. He has pledged to provide $33.5 billion in equity financing and has obtained commitments for up to $13 billion in debt financing.
The tech CEO is also locked in a battle with Twitter over spam and fake accounts, which he has called “a very significant matter.” While Twitter claims spam and fake accounts are less than 5% of users, Musk argues that the figure is over 20%.
Elon Musk had been wrangling with Twitter over ‘actively resisting and thwarting’ his demands for more transparent information on the spam and fake account data. Twitter, in its own right, turned over a “firehose” of data.
The news comes after Musk’s ‘all hands’ call to thousands of Twitter employees last week, which was leaked to Project Veritas.
The Big Tech CEO talked about respecting Americans’ opinions, even if they diverge from those of Twitter employees.
“I think it’s essential to have free speech,” Musk said. He added that “multiple opinions” should exist on Twitter to “make sure that we’re not sort of driving a narrative.”
Musk was asked about several topics, including his political leanings, his plans for layoffs, and the overall direction of the company.
Musk described his political views as “moderate.” He added that while he traditionally has voted Democrat, he recently voted Republican this week for the first time in his life. Musk said he cast his vote for Texas Congressional Candidate Mayra Flores, who flipped a seat held by Democrats for over 100 years.
The tech entrepreneuer added that he believes that most of the world favors moderate politics, but that the far right and left should have the freedom to vent their frustrations on Twitter.
Musk criticized the major news media as “negative” and pointed out that they “almost never” get the story right. He insisted that Twitter’s issues, such as bots, spam, and multi-account users, must be contained.
“I think an important goal for Twitter would be to try to include as, as much of the country, as much of the world as possible,” Musk said.
Musk remarked that he’s “not hung up on titles,” but he wants to be the force behind the change at Twitter.
Elon Musk’s imminent takeover of Twitter is encouraging for Americans who want to discuss news happening in their nation without Big Tech censorship.
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